How do I treat my cats food allergy without going to the vet?

Question

I changed his food recently and it gave him a food allergy. I just changed it back to his old food, but he is still itching, grooming, and biting his hair out. What can I do?

Answer 1

Look at the top 3 - 4 ingredients in the food.  Often the main things are like chicken and corn.  Now find a food that doesn't have any of those things in it.  Also, make certain it is a different brand.  Foods made by the same company may have a different protein source (fish and rice instead of chicken and corn or something like that) but the company will still use many of the same minor ingredients (the other 20 things on the list).  It may take some searching as most foods are chicken and corn and it can be a bit of a problem, but it can be done.

HOWEVER...I've worked for 8 years as a vet tech and I have never heard of a switch in foods causing an allergy...maybe your cat was allergic to the new food, but it makes no sense that the old food would give him problems too.  Usually to know if the new food is going to work, you have to give it about a month.  Did the new food cause the itching right away?  If so, it probably wasn't the food.  Also, in switching back, did you give it long enough (a month) to see if it would work?  I'd be more likely to suspect a change in laundry products (cat sleeping on blankets or clothes or something, a chemical in the yard or neighborhood if your cat goes out, a recent bath, or even FLEAS!  Nasty once you got them and a real pain for both you and the cat.  Good luck with everything.

Answer 2

Are you positive it's a food allergy? If you are, try experimenting with some high quality foods and/or grainless diets.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Edit: As others have said, make sure it's a food allergy and not something like parasites.

Answer 3

It takes weeks, sometimes months, before you see any change.

Make sure he doesn't have fleas.

Ho do you know it's a food allergy?

Answer 4

By changing to the p[roper foods for the species. That means no dry food





Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process.  Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_...

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.    The best food for cats does not contain any grains at all.

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies  whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

                               http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

                               http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

      http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...

Vetinarian diets  The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza.  http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Answer 5

I doubt your cat has an allergy.  Have him checked for fleas and mange.

Answer 6

I think your cat has fleas. You have to give the cat a pill once a day. I don't remember what it was called, but go to the vet and buy flea medicine.